Automobile.



Patented .lune Il, 19m. l. KITSEE.

AUTGMUBILE.

(Application led Mar. 2f), 1901.)

` 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

4 Patentad lune` Il, ISl.

l., KiTSEE.

AUTOMOBBLE.

@Application led Mai". 29, 1901.)

. 2 Shets-$heet 2 j am www.)

.NIT-'an STATES ATENT OFFICE.

AUTOMOBILE'.

SPECIFICATION forming part ef :remerciement No. 676,263, dated June 11, 1901. Application led March 29, 190i. Serial Nm -53,447 CNO model.)

Tl? all. whom, it may concern: Be it known that I, IsIDoR Krrsnn, of the city and county of Philadelphia,St-ate of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and usefullmpro'vements in Automobiles, of which the following' is a specification. My invention relates to an improvement in automobiles.

The objcctof my invention is to provide means for stop ing the carriage automatically' or at the will o -the'person using the carriage.

It is unnecessary for me to point out the necessity of vsafeguards in the use of electric vehicles. The frequency of runaways points strongly to the lneed of contrivances capable of Y.bringing Vautomatically the vehicle to a standstill, no' matter if the driver or passenger has lost control of the' circuit-lever or not,v An automatic safeguardhas to embrace the following points: The device must, under all circumstances,work by such an involunftary movement of the occupant of the vehicle as Aisv usually the case when accident th reatens. .Itis 'not enough'that the device be'actuated by pressing a .lever with the hand or foot, be-

`Scalise this safeguardis j ust then needed when the occupant, through threatened accident,

, j 1089s vhis `presence of mind. For this reason the-eafetydcvice should 'be actuated by the goppressurepn-thelseat; for no matter how eX- .cited the occupant the rst involuntary im- .pulse is always to jump from the seat, and 'Ljthe occupant will do this more readily if he i-knows that through this movement the accident will be prevented. Taking now for granted that it is necessary that the safety dcvice should be actuated by an involuntary movement-such, for instance, as rising `from A vthe seat or moving away part of the body from the position it usually occupiesf-the great `diiiicnlly arises that if an involuntary move- .ment in one. direction actuates the safety device in av 'manner so as to stop the vehicle then the samemovement in the opposite direction will cause the moving of the vehicle when least desired. To make the point more clear, it is supposed that the safety-brakeis4 actuated bythe seat or seatswitch in such a manner that ifthe person inthe vehicle occu-V 5o pies the seat the motor-circuit is established;

' Y but if he risesfrom the seat the circuit con--` trolling the brake is established. It then follows that when through al threatened accident'the occupant jumps from theseat and, either voluntarily or involuntarily, `falls back 5 5 again, the vehicle,-ha ving once stopped, will start againj ust at a moment when such starting may mean injury or death to the occupant.

In myexperiments with a full-sized brake of the description as illustrated in the drawings 6o this point was strongly brought out, and' it is therefore necessary for such devices to include the following: First, a safety device once actu*` ated by an involuntary movement so asto stop vthe vehicle shall not be brought again toits for- 6 5 mer position till the occupant has reset part ot" the device, and this resetting to require a definite andyvoluntary motion in' contradistinc- Vtion to the 'previous 4involuntary movement,

and, second, the setting of the brake through 7o the safety device may often be necessary when the vehicle is at its greatest speed-that is, when th-e'curr'ent is put on in full force. If after the danger of accident is over the occupant resumes -his seat before resetting .that part of the device which again actuates the motor, it is more than probable that the great iow of current will heat the coils of the motorin such a degree that they mayeven be burned'out,and means haveto be pro- 8o vided that the current shall not flow through the motor-circuit till this resetting is accomplished. .A safety arrangement, therefore, must. contain, to be in reality what it claims to be, devices as follows:A first, a device actuated by an involuntary movement of the occupant to break the motor-circuit and to set the brake; second, a device actuated by the voluntary and judicious movement of the occupant to release the brake and to restab- 9o lish the motor-circuit, and, third, a device preventing the establishment of rthe motorcircuit before the brake is released. To accompli'sh .all these purposes sct forth' is the aim-of my invention.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure v1 is 'a'iongitudinal section of an automobile, showing the brake mechanism in its normal position; Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view of the wiring of my invention. Fig. 3 is a llongitudinal sectional view of the automobile-bed, shelving the position of the brake mechanism after the brake-magnet has been energized IOO and the brake set.

.' tothe latch R.

6o thatthis construction does not form any-part of gizedis adapted to attract the armature T.

A is the automobile-bed. B is the'seat proper; U, the battery; D, the

motor; E, thebrake-casing; F, the brake#4 lever; G, the brake-rod; H, a bell-crank lever which is pivoted to the bottom of the bedatl purpose-of rock- Ij is anvangle-iron secured .to the automobile-bed, through the lower end of which the brake-rod G passes.v A

M is a lever 'which is pivoted at the point N to the b'ed, the rod G passing through the lower end of this lever.

O is a spring which is interposed between the angle-iron L and the lever M. P is a collar secured to the brakefrod G.y Q is a projection formed upon the under side of the lever M. This projection is bev- .eled upon its upper surface. Risa latch which is pivoted to the hanger S. The nose of this latch is adapted to engage theprojection Q.' T is an armature secured 'U is an elcctromagnet which .when ener- Vis a link pivoted to the lever M at one end and at the other end to the foot-lever'lv, which foot-lever is vpivoted to the bed of the automobile at' the point X. Y is thefoot- Aplate of this foot-lever W.

Z is one .member of a switch, connected 'to the foot-lever-W,'and a is the other member of the switch, secured to the bed of the antomobile.

b is a seat-board pivot'cd at-c to the seat 'proper and adapted to be held upward by the-'spring d.

e is a metallic contact secured to the seatboard b. fis another' metallic contact secured' to the seat proper. v g is anelectromagn'etic device which is adapted to be placed beneath the seat. h is the electromagnet of 'this device.

'11 is the armature which is secured to the leverj. k is a contact-point the leverj 4is adapted to make contact-with when in its raised po-A sition-,and Z isacontact the leverj is adapted to make contact with when pulled down by the magnet h.

m is a switch for thepurpose of throwing the brake-magnet out of operation.

I have not illustrated in the drawings the mechanism of the controller and the lever of saidv controller for the reason that persons versed. in the art well understand the 'construction of same and for the further reason myrnvention. The controller, withits'mechanism, may be placed between the motar and the contact Z in the space indicated by'lb tted The modus operandi ot'niy invention is as tery C are open.

long as th'e-foot-plate'is not reset- -occupant ascertains that all threatened danfollows: When the vehicleis not in use,s'tored away, the switch m is left open, and as the controller of the vehicle is then in such a position as to break the circuit: vbetween the motor'and contact Z all the circuits of the bat- If the vehicle isto'be brought into use, the switch m is rst closed.

The occupant in taking his seat presses to.- gether the springs e'and j'thereby establishing a circuit including the electromagnet h.' The lever j of this magnet is pulled downward and brought in connection with the contact-Z. A circuitis thereby established from the positive pole of the battery C through' lever `1',contact Z,controller,and its resistance,

As long as the driver occupies the seat the vehicle is driven as if no safety device wouldv (designated in the drawings by dotted lines',) I

have been applied thereto.l Should'now an'. accident threaten and the occupant jump iuvoluntarily from the seat', then the contacts between the springs e andf will b'e broken.

vThis will .demagnetize the electromaguet h,

will release the lever y',fand will bringthe `same in connection with the contact k.-

Through this manipulation the circuit con- .taining the motor will be broken and the circuit will be established from the positive -pole' of the battery C through the leverj, contact k, electromagnet U, closed switch m, back to the negative pole of the battery. The armature T, secured to the latch fR, will be ldrawn toward the core of 'this electromagneti,

too

and the latch R will thereby release its hold on the projectionQ ot the lever M. The auxiliary spring O, the action of which is controlled by the level M, will, now exert its pressure on the rod G and will setthe brake independent of the spring K, with its foot-lever J. At the same time the link V will be pushed forward and wilLbring the foot-lever W with its foot-plate Y, in a position as illustrated in Fig. 3, thereby severing the.connection between contact-plate Z- and contact-brush a.A Il.' now after theset ting of the brake the crcupant, either bym c ident or design, again esumes the seat, the

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noter-circuit will not be established and thebrake will not be released. '1 0 release the' brake, it is necessary to'push back in its fol:- mer position the foot-plate Y, andato make complete the motor-circuit it is also' necessary to bring in contact the plates Z and a,

which can only be done through the operation No matter, therefore, if

of this foot-plate. the lever .l is pulled down to the contact l,

when the occupant has resumed his former place the motor-cireuit'will remainbroken as ger is over, he presses his foot against the plate When the vehicle is again placed, as far as its motive power is concerned, at the 'disposal of the driver.

The device, as illustrated inthe drawings, was carefully tested by me in practice and found not only to be efficient, but to embody all the necessary points above enumerated,

vwhich should be embodied in a device deservg ing the designation-of a safety-brake;

I d c not think it .necessary to describe more in detail the f unction of the mechanical parts of the brake, as a perusal bf the drawings f and description of same will clearly'indicate .to a person versed in the art the function of each part of it.

While in` this specification and in tite claims following this specilication I make use of the words Vfbrake-circuit, I understand under them thecircuit including the electromagnetic device designed'to actuate either-directlyj'or indirectly the' brake.

Persons versed in the 'art will readily find the sort'of coils required forthe electromagnets necessary to be used in the device described, but after careful trials and experiments I find that if the coil of the electromagnet h is wound to about fifty ohms it is large current would not injure the coil in the least, as'it is possible that undue resistance -between the latch R and projection Q may necessitate a larger current.

I have found the use of an electromagnetic device interposed between the motor-circuit and the seat-switch a necessity for thereason that, as my experiments havesuciently demonstrated, the sparking between the two contacts on the seat-switch is often such that the burning of the seat proper is not entirely excluded, besides the appearance of large sparks may easily scare the occupant; but with the intervention of the electromagnetic device as described and illustrated the seat-- switch only makes and breaks the contact of the circuit carrying such small amperage as to exclude sparking of any consequence.

Having now described my invention, what Y I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. lInan electrically-propelled vehicle, the

. combination with a switch adapted to automatically open a circuit containing the source of current and the motor propelling the vehicle, and to simultaneously close a circuit ,containing an electromagnetic device controlling the brake of the vehicle, of means controlled by said switch for applying the.

hicles consisting of the following instrumentalities: a switch controlled by the weight of the occupant of the vehicle, an electrlomagnetic device operated by said switch, a monetic device, a second circuitcontaining an lelectromagnet controlling the brake of said vehicle, mechanical means to keep said brakecircuit closed and mechanical means to open said'brake-circuit;

3. `In a device such as described, an elec-I tromagnet operated by a switch controlled by the weight of the occupant of the vehicle, said electromagnet controllinga motor-circuit and a brake-circuit, in combination with a switch controlled bythe mechanism of the brake to open or'elose the motor-circuit.

4. A safety device for vehicles provided with means controlled by the weight of the occupant of the vehicle to simultaneously open the 'motor-circuit and close the brake-4 circnit,and further provided with means ccntrolled by the mechanical movement of parts of the brake device to keep closed said brakecircuit and keep open the motorcircuit independently of the weight of the occupant.

5. In a safety device for electric vehicles, a motor-circuit provided with two switches, one switch adapted to be closed through the weight ofthe occupant of the vehicle, and adapted to be opened if said weight is removed, the second switch adapted to be opened independently of the weight of the occupant through the movement of parts of the ybrake mechanism.

6. In a motor-vehicle, the combination with Ator-circuit controlled by saidelectromag- IOO a motor, and a brake, of means fr control ling the operation of the motor and brake, and auxiliary means for preventing operation of the motor until the brake has been'released.

7. In a motor-vehicle, the combination with a motor, and a brake, of means for. controlling the operation of the motor and brake, and auxiliary means for preventing operation jof the motor until' the brake has beenre'- leased, said-auxiliary means being normally `restrained from actuationthrough the medium of the brake' mechanism.

8. In a motor-vehicle, the combination with a motor, and a brake, of means operativelyr related to a movable portion ofthe vehicle for controlling the operation of the motor and brake, an auxiliary means for preventing operation of the motor until the brake has been released.

9. In a motor-vehicle, the combination with a motor, a source of power, and a brake, of devices for transmitting the power to the motor and brake mechanism, a device for con- IIO trolling the transmission of the power theresoreo 'of power foi-.preventing operation of to, and au auxiliary device for preventing the motor until thebrake has been released. transmission of the power to the motor after In testimony whereof I hereby 4Sign my the brake has been set. name, in the presence of two subscribing Wit 5 lg. In a motor-vehicle, the combination nes'ses, thisthilay of March, A. D. 1901. l 15 wit a. 1notor,`a source of power, and a brake, f of means'i'nterposed between the motor and A ISDOR KI the source of power for controlling the oper- Wibnesses: ation ofthe motor and brake, and auxiliary EDITH R.,STILLEY, ro means also interposed bebween the motor end OHAS. KRESSENBUCH. 

